“Stop, you fools!” cried Sid Merrick.  “Those are no ghosts, I tell you.  It’s a trick of some kind.”

“I—­I don’t know about that,” answered Shelley.  “Don’t you think it would be better to come here in the daylight?  We—­er—­we can’t find that cave in the dark anyway.”

“Yes, we can—­and I am going to do it, too,” was Merrick’s answer.  “That is a trick, I tell you.”  He raised his voice:  “Who are you?” he called out.  “Answer me truthfully, or I’ll fire on you!”

This threat alarmed the Rover boys, for they saw that Merrick was in earnest.

“I guess our cake is dough,” muttered Tom.

“Wait, I think I can scare him back yet,” said Dick.  “Let me do the talking.”

“I say, who are you?” repeated Merrick.  “You needn’t pretend to be ghosts, for I don’t believe in them.”

“We are the owners of this isle,” answered Dick, in the heaviest tone he could assume.  “We are ten strong, and we order you to go back to your ship at once.”

“The owners of this isle?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“You can do as you please about that.  But if you come a yard further we’ll fire at you.”

“Humph!  Then you are armed?”

“We are and we know how to shoot, too.”

“What brought you here at such a time as this?”

“We have a special reason for being here, as you may learn by to morrow.”

“Do you know anything of a treasure on this island?” went on Sid Merrick curiously.

“We know something of it, yes.  It belongs to the Stanhope estate, provided it can be found.”

“It doesn’t belong to the Stanhopes at all—­it belongs to me,” cried Merrick.

“In a day or two the Stanhopes are coming here to take possession,” went on Dick.  “They will bring with them a number of their friends and uncover the treasure, which is now hidden in a secret place.  As I and my brothers and cousins own this isle we are to have our share of what is uncovered.  Now we warn you again to go away.  We are ten to your four, and we are all armed with shotguns and pistols, and we have the drop on you.”

“Good for you, Dick, pile it on,” whispered Tom.  Then he pulled Sam by the arm.  “Come on, let us appear from behind another rock—­they’ll think we are two more of the brothers or cousins!”

“You won’t dare to shoot us,” blustered Merrick, but his voice had a trace of uncertainty in it.

“Won’t we?” answered Dick.  “There is a warning for you!” And raising the pistol he carried he sent a shot over the heads of the other party.

“They are shooting at us!  We’ll all be killed!” yelled Tad Sobber, who had come back during the conversation, and again he and Cuffer took to their heels.

“Mind the warning!” called out Dick, and dropped almost out of sight behind a rock.  At that same moment Tom and Sam appeared from behind a rock far to the left.